Found Family
Sora wished he could say that it got better as time went on, but it really didn’t. Due to the memories that Harry’s mother had shared with him, he knew that magic was real in that world, but that those that used it were referred to as wizards or witches like Merlin in his world and that it was all supposed to be a secret. Considering all that had happened to baby Harry in the hours after Sora came to him and the memories, it would be safe to assume that Harry would also have magic in him. At first, Sora had been hopeful when he and Harry had been picked up by a giant of a man who murmured comforting words about bringing the infant to family members, but in the days that followed, his hope had diminished somewhat. Logically, he knew that not all families would be close, but in the time that he and Harry had been living with his aunt and her family, he wasn’t sure how long he could take it. The woman, Petunia, was married to a rather large blonde man named Vernon and together they had a child of their own named Dudley and within the first day of meeting the two adults, Sora knew that Harry’s life was going to be difficult. As soon as the woman figured out that Harry was her sister’s son, a look of disgust with a hint of fear crossed her face even as she held the infant close. From then on, she and the other members of the family held a grudge against Harry with Sora even overhearing a discussion between the two adults about how they would do their best to suppress whatever magic the boy would manifest. Not only that, but they would never tell the boy why they held such animosity towards him, simply treating him worse than Sora knew family should be.
In the meantime, Sora had been getting to know the boy he vowed to protect, talking to the boy frequently to try and convey his affection. The boy might not get the love that he deserved from his family, but Sora would give his all to show the child exactly how much he was loved. That, and he would also share the memories that his mother had left with him as a way to let Harry connect with his parents. When the boy was old enough, Sora had also shared the information of the Wizarding world and magic with him, much to Harry’s delight. Sora had even demonstrated a bit of the magic he could do with his Keyblade, though it was definitely more suited for combat than what he was sure the Wizarding World used it for. It was probably more like Merlin and his way of enchanting furniture and the like.
As Harry got older, he would see more and more of Sora within the Station of Awakening, usually when he fell asleep, but they could also talk when they were awake, and Harry found Sora a comforting presence to talk to when he was alone and his aunt, uncle and cousin were pretending he didn’t exist. As soon as Harry was old enough to walk and take orders, he was put to work around the house, much to Sora’s displeasure. It was during one of those instances that they discovered something…
Harry was struggling to carry a hose to the different parts of the garden while Sora watched helplessly. The tiny boy was huffing and puffing with effort, sweat running down his forehead and his vision a soft haze. Sora suspected that Harry needed glasses, but there was no way that Harry’s family would spend anything that they deemed “unnecessary” on their nephew. They may need to wait until Harry was old enough to go to school and alert a teacher. Maybe they would also help with their family situation, but something told Sora they weren’t going to be that lucky. Harry panted as he made it to the other end of the garden where he placed down the hose and turned on the water, wiping away the sweat on his brow. Sora winced and opened the link between their hearts, trying to transfer his energy into the boy to try and relieve him of his fatigue, but when Harry grasped at it, something happened. The both of them gasped as white light overtook their vision and when they opened their eyes again. Sora found that Harry’s vision was clearer, but there was also something wrong with his body. Looking down, he realized that he wasn’t looking through Harry’s eyes. He wasn’t in the Station of Awakening anymore. He was in the garden at Number 4 Privet Drive and as he looked down, he could see that he wasn’t in his own body. From inside his head, he could hear Harry sounding just as confused as Sora was.
“Sora? What happened? Why am I here?” the boy asked dazedly and Sora blinked in surprise, still getting his bearings.
“I-I…don’t know.” He whispered, though the voice that came out of his mouth belonged to Harry. Sora tested the boy’s body and while a bit sore, he thought he could handle it and walked over to the water now pooling under the bushes of the garden, especially as he felt his own energy reserves flow into the tiny body. Like he had suspected, he was now in control of Harry’s body while Harry himself was in the Station of Awakening. The only thing that seemed to change or mark the differences between the two were that now instead of Harry’s normal forest green eyes, sky blue were in their place, improving their eyesight.
“Sora? Are you ok? How do we get back?” Harry asked, now getting scared when he couldn’t control his body and Sora sent a wave of comfort through their bond. There was no need to launch the boy into a panic, though Sora himself was also fighting off panic.
“Ok, um, let me try what I did before and maybe we can switch back?” Sora asked and felt Harry hesitantly agreed. With that, they connected their souls again, Sora lending his energy to the boy and the white flashed over their visions again. When they opened their eyes again, they were back to normal. Both let out a sigh of relief and Harry rubbed his arms to make sure that he was back in his own body. Sora let out a sigh of relief, but the experience now churned in his mind. So they could swap consciousness? That had never happened before when Roxas, Xion, and Ventus were inside his heart, but maybe it was because they weren’t fully conscious inside of him? Most of them described the experience as something like a dream. They could see what was going on with Sora, watching through his eyes, but weren’t quite awake enough to talk to him or each other. It was only when Sora was deep enough in the Sleeping Worlds that he had even met Roxas and when he was awake, it was only when the topic of Aqua came up that Ventus had found the energy to speak, though only briefly. Xion herself was lost to them for a while and had neither the strength nor the will to speak.
“Harry are you ok?” he asked and the boy nodded, feeling his heart calming down.
“Are you ok?” Harry whispered, hand over his heart as if to try and feel Sora’s heart within him. Sora made a sound of affirmation, sending a pulse of affection to the child. Harry trembled in relief and looked at his reflection again. Green eyes. They were actually back to normal now.
“Harry, would you like to try again?” Sora asked tentatively, startling the boy.
“What?!” he yelped before clapping his hands over his mouth and looking around to make sure he hadn’t attracted the attention of his aunt.
“You want to do it again? Why?” he asked the other and Sora smiled softly.
“I want to do the yardwork for you. You’re too little to be doing stuff like that and I don’t mind helping you.” Sora said softly, remembering the strain that Harry would go through trying to complete his unreasonable amount of chores.
“What? No, I can do it! Aunt Petunia said that I have to.” The boy shook his head and Sora honestly felt like hugging him. The boy didn’t see what was wrong with this whole situation and it made Sora’s heart pang with sympathy.
“I know that you probably can do it, Harry, but you shouldn’t have to. It’s making you so tired and hurting you, and I don’t want to see that. Please let me help you?” Sora pled and Harry could feel his resolve breaking. The boy was very tired and just the thought of pulling weeds made his arms weak. But he also didn’t want Sora to feel the pain.
“Don’t worry about that, Harry. I’ll be fine. I’ve been through worse than this.” Sora assured, feeling the other’s hesitation. Harry sighed and nodded, giving in to the other’s request, though still a little frightened at the sensation. Sora smiled and sent a comforting wave to Harry before they switched again. Back in Harry’s body, Sora smiled and continued to work, feeling his regular energy flow through him and assisting him in his endeavors.
“Thank you, Sora.” Harry whispered gratefully from inside his mind and Sora smiled, carrying the hose around from place to place before starting on the weeds.
“Anytime, Harry. I really don’t mind.” He said happily.
Later that night, as Harry lay down to sleep, he sunk into dreams and found Sora sitting there in the Station of Awakening. The Keyblade Wielder smiled up at the child and held his arms out. Harry smiled and ran towards him, launching into a hug. Just being in his guardian’s arms gave him such a sense of peace and happiness, he wanted nothing more than to stay there until he woke up again, but he didn’t want to make Sora mad, so he said nothing, slipping onto the floor to sit beside him. They would usually spend their time like this with Sora occasionally answering any questions Harry had about his old life, describing all the worlds he had been to and the things he had seen and experienced. It made Sora happy to see the light that appeared in those green eyes as Sora described his adventures, so he tried to keep things more lighthearted.
“Sora, how did you get here?” Harry asked his guardian one night as they sat on the glass mural of the now five-year-old’s heart. The Keyblade Wielder blinked in surprise and tilted his head in thought. In the first year of being with the boy, he had promised himself that he wouldn’t lie to Harry since he didn’t really have a reason to. That, and he thought that it would let the boy trust him more.
“Well, I’m not really sure. I made a wish deep in my heart when I died to keep protecting people and then I woke up and met your mom. She asked me to protect you, so now I’m here.” Sora answered as best as he could, putting on a gentle smile for the boy as they sat side by side, the boy leaning into the warmth of his body. He hadn’t gotten any sort of touch that wasn’t fueled by some sort of negative emotion from anyone else and he was affection starved. Luckily, Sora was ready and willing to provide for him.
“You knew my mum?” Harry asked softly, trying to conjure the image of his mother, but nothing came up. He felt like he should be sad that he couldn’t remember his parents, but since he couldn’t remember, it wasn’t that bad. Besides, he at least had Sora to tell him about his mom and be there for him, even if it was only in his head.
“I didn’t know her for that long, but from what she showed me, she was an amazing person. She had bright red hair and green eyes and had a really pretty smile. She fought so hard to protect you because she loved you, so don’t ever forget that, ok?” Sora said passionately, hugging the child close to him. Harry nodded and cuddled close to the other male, hugging Sora tightly.
“Sora…what happened to them…? My mum and dad…?” the tiny boy asked quietly after a moment of silence. Sora froze at the question. That was something that had never come up before, though he had told Harry as soon as he was old enough to understand that his parents were gone. Luckily, it went over better than when Petunia had broken the same news to him, a sneer in her voice as she snarled out that Harry’s parents had both died in a car crash. It was such a cold way to deliver the news to a child and Harry had been in tears, retreating to the Station of Awakening with Sora as soon as he was asleep to be comforted by the other.
“Are you sure you want to know, Harry? It’s not a very nice story.” Sora asked and looked down at the hesitant green eyes of the boy. For a moment, Harry hesitated before nodding vigorously, eyes shining.
“Please tell me.” Harry pleaded and Sora sighed before nodding, readjusting his grip on the five-year-old in his arms.
“Well, I don’t know much, but I’ll tell you what I do know, ok?” he asked and Harry nodded, cuddling into Sora. Sora nodded before proceeding.
“Ok. From what memories your mom shared with me, there was a really bad man, an evil wizard, who was trying to take over the world. And not just the Wizarding World. He wanted to tell everyone that magic was real and that Wizards were better than people without magic, but there was one thing in his way.” Sora explained softly, trying to keep it simple for the child. Harry watched him with rapt attention, completely focused on the story in a mixture of fascination and fear. He knew it was about him, but he just felt so detached from it since his life was so different now.
“What was it?” Harry asked quietly, green eyes wide.
“Well, someone told him that someone would be linked to him and end up defeating him one day, and he didn’t want that to happen so he went to find them. That person…was you…” Sora said gently as the boy gasped.
“Me? But why?” Harry whispered softly.
“I don’t know.” Sora said honestly, holding the boy close. “But now he’s gone. You defeated him when you were only a baby and now you don’t have to worry about him. I’ll make sure of it.” he said and the older male smiled reassuringly. Harry smiled back and cuddled into the other’s arms, feeling his heart settle with the peace that the other brought. Harry often wondered if this is how his parents would have treated him if they were alive. Or maybe a sibling? Harry had now been to school and had seen the way that some of his classmates talked about having a brother or sister. Maybe it was like that? He wasn’t sure, or at least he wasn’t sure until about a year later. It was during a small class project involving family lines that Harry put any stock into what family meant. He had heard the rest of his classmates talk happily about their mothers and fathers and siblings, drawing out the interconnecting lines of their families at their desks while Harry looked down at his page, absently filling in the names of his mother and father above his name, but looking at the names held little to no meaning to him.
James and Lily Potter
His father and mother.
He had at least heard of his mother, hearing about her memories from the soul inside his mind and he would cling to every word in awe and fascination. Through Sora, his mother lived, but he knew almost nothing about his father. As Harry listened to his teacher, he focused on the definition that the teacher gave of family.
“Family is usually made up of people like your mother, father, and siblings. Parents are meant to take care of their children and love their children very much!” the teacher said cheerfully, walking around and helping her students with their assignment. Harry finished his rather quickly and sat quietly in his seat to wait for the lesson to end, though the words of his teacher stuck in his brain.
‘Parents are supposed to love and take care of us?’ he thought to himself. Thinking to the Dursleys, the idea could never apply to them, though they took care of Dudley very well, he thought. His mother definitely loved and cared for him. Why else would she die for him? Or at least that’s what Sora said. His father…well, Harry wasn’t sure about his father. Sora said he didn’t know much about him since his mum’s memories were more focused around him and her own life, only leaving the impression of the great love she had for his father and that’s all that it amounted to. Harry didn’t even have a face to put to the name “James Potter”, so in his child mind, James held less weight to him. So, what about Sora? What was Sora to him? Sora was a ghost living inside of him, a stranger that his mother asked to look after him. But to Harry…he was more than that. Sora held him and comforted him as he cried from loneliness, always offered words of praise when Harry had done well at something and helped him whenever he couldn’t do something. Sora had taken care of him for longer than his actual parents had, and even though the other wasn’t there in flesh and blood, it meant more to the child than anything else. Sora was his protector, his guardian. Sora was practically his parent.
The thought struck him oddly as he thought more about it, coming to the same conclusion no matter how much he thought about it. The ghostly presence in his mind was more of a parent to him than anyone else he knew. Suddenly, Harry felt nervous as he thought about it, hoping that Sora wasn’t listening in. The other said he only tuned in when Harry felt something strongly, wanting to give Harry his privacy when he didn’t need or want him around and Harry was grateful for that now. He needed Sora not to be here so he couldn’t listen in on him. What would Sora even think of his thoughts? Would he be mad at Harry? After all, Sora was just a ghost. He wasn’t related to him, so why would Sora care? He was just there to protect him because his mum asked him to. Still…Harry couldn’t help the new idea that stuck in his head….
Later that day when Harry was lying in his cot in his closet, he closed his eyes and opened them again to find himself back with Sora. Said older male smiled at him as he stopped from his swordplay practice. Harry had asked him why he kept practicing even though there was nothing in the Station of Awakening to fight and no one outside of it required the use of the Keyblade, no matter what Sora said about it. In response, Sora just smiled and said that it was just in case and that the practice made him feel better.
“Hey, Harry! How was your day today?” The older male asked happily, beaming down at the grade schooler before dematerializing his weapon and walking towards him, arms open for a hug. Harry hesitated before walking over nervously and giving his guardian a quick hug, letting go just as quickly. Sora looked at the boy in confusion, eyebrows furrowing at the sight of the nervous child. Well, that was worrying. Usually the boy was happy to hug the other, starving for the attention and affection he didn’t have when he was awake, so why was he hesitant now?
“Harry? Are you okay?” he asked gently and knelt down to look at the boy better. Harry froze for a moment before shaking his head but didn’t look Sora in the eyes.
“No. I’m fine.” He replied softly, gaze downcast. Sora frowned, but didn’t say anything more about it. He didn’t want to push the child and he knew Harry well enough that he would come to Sora when he was ready. Sighing, Sora nodded and smiled at the boy, sitting down on the floor.
“So tell me about your day.” He said gently and saw Harry relax, sitting down next to the Keyblade Wielder to talk about his day and about how Dudley had gotten in trouble with a teacher when he had stolen a toy from another student. Sora listened and smiled. He would be patient until Harry wanted to talk to him and in the meantime would listen to anything he had to say, no matter how long it took. Luckily, he didn’t have long to wait as a few days later, it all came to a head.
“Haaaarrryyyy! Let me just take care of some of those mean kids!” Sora pled with the boy, pouting and hugging the boy close. Harry laughed and playfully tried to pull away.
“Dad, nooo!” he giggled and Sora took a moment to process as the word reached his brain before he felt himself short circuit. Similarly, Harry felt himself freeze as soon as the word left his mouth and he felt Sora freeze around him.
Oh no!
He had said it!
He didn’t mean to!
The young boy scrambled out of the still unmoving Sora’s arms and backed away, sinking to the ground and hugging himself close, trembling. He had messed up! He didn’t mean to say anything! What if Sora hated it? What if Sora left him because he hated Harry now?! The young boy didn’t know how to take the thought and started crying, rocking himself in place. It was at the sound of the boy’s cries that Sora finally snapped out of his stupor and his head snapped to the now crying boy a few meters from him.
“Harry!” he cried and rushed over to gather the boy up in his arms. “Oh, Harry, please don’t cry! What’s wrong? You can tell me anything.“ the Keyblade Wielder cooed softly, hugging the boy comfortingly while Harry sobbed quietly in his arms.
“No! You’ll be mad at me! Then you’ll leave!” Harry cried tearfully and clung to Sora’s clothes, relishing in the other’s warm presence.
“What? NO! I’d never leave you, Harry! Why would you think that?” Sora gasped, eyes wide in surprise. Harry continued to sob and sniffle, burying his face in Sora’s chest as he did so and refusing to face him. Sora held him in a confused panic before the situation finally caught up with him in his brain.
“Is it because you called me dad?” Sora asked and at the violent tremble from the boy in his arms, he knew he had hit the nail on the head.
“Oh, Harry, why would I be mad about that? I wouldn’t leave just because you called me dad! There’s no need to be embarrassed about it either! I’ve called plenty of my teachers “mom” before!” Sora said reassuringly, rubbing the young boy’s back soothingly. Harry’s sobs had quieted the more Sora talked, reassuring him that he wouldn’t leave Harry.
“R-really? Are you sure?” Harry asked quietly, sniffling. Sora nodded, smiling.
“Would I lie to you?” He asked and Harry shook his head. No, Sora would never lie to him. He had, on occasion, told Harry that he wasn’t able to answer a question till the boy was older, but he had never lied, not even when it came to some harsh truths. Sora believed heavily in never lying to the other, especially since it seemed like some things were important for the young boy to know, like the existence of the Wizarding World. Sora knew that no one else in Harry’s life would explain those types of things to him, so it was up to him to explain things to the young boy.
“No. You wouldn’t.” Harry murmured and hugged Sora, feeling relief sweep through him and leaving him exhausted. They sat there in silence for a while, Sora petting the other’s hair soothingly as they did so before Harry broke the silence.
“Sora? I-is it alright if I call you dad?” Harry asked, his voice tiny and nervous, green eyes wide and glittering with tears. Sora blinked in surprise before smiling widely, a warm feeling of love wrapping around his heart for the child in his arms.
“Of course it is! It would make me really happy to hear that! I’ve never been a dad before, so I hope that I’ll be a good dad!” Sora said, a hint of nervousness in his voice as he thought about it. Harry shook his head and hugged Sora tightly.
“You’re already the best dad.” He mumbled; voice slightly muffled by Sora’s clothes. Sora smiled and hugged the boy close for a beat before standing up suddenly and lifting the boy up into the air, spinning him around joyfully.
“Then if I’m the best dad, then you’re the best son!” he said happily and Harry shrieked with laughter, holding onto the other happily.
*